New LITA Guide Available from Neal-Shuman

Library webmasters, usability teams, and administrators will want this authoritative reference on usability.

In Making Library Web Sites Usable, a LITA guide to be published by Neal Schuman on February 11, 2008, authors Tom Lehman and Terry Nikkel show library webmasters, usability teams, and library administrators how to turn confusing, unappealing Web sites into the kind of friendly, efficient information gateways that students will choose.

With clear, non-technical language, Making Library Web Sites Usable breaks down what usability assessments are, why they are important for libraries, why libraries should do them regularly, and what the most common challenges are. They also explain all of the necessary how-tos, whats, and whys for the most common assessment techniques and how to interpret results, document findings, and effectively communicate results and recommendations.

Usability-in-action success stories from Purdue, the University of Virginia, and Wright State University libraries; the Clinton Macomb Public Library in Michigan; the MITRE corporate library; and the library at NASA Goddard offer rare insights and practical advice for facing challenges like limited time, working within a budget, and rallying support for Web site changes.

978-1-55570-620-3. 208 pp. $65.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
Tom Lehman is Digital Access Librarian at the University Libraries of Notre Dame, where he chairs teams that help maintain metadata in the library Web site, and oversee the library intranet. He also participates in the maintenance of the university search engine. Prior to his current position, he was head of Copy Cataloging. In his spare time he digitizes 35mm slides taking in Puerto Rico in the 1940s and 1950s, preserving and providing access to them.

Terry Nikkel is Director, Information Services and Systems, at the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick. Previously he was Head, Library Systems, at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Terry has been involved in many Web site projects and has long had a keen interest in interface usability and design. Terry was recently appointed to a university-wide steering committee at UNB that will oversee a complete overhaul of all its external and internal Web sites. Terry earned his MLIS at the University of Western Ontario, and recently completed an MBA at Dalhousie.

LITA members get a 10% discount on this title and all other Neal-Schuman publications
Visit Neal-Shuman’s Web site to order www.neal-schuman.com